Gamification of Learning: Making Education more Interactive for Students |Ep 3 |Dr. Meenakshi Narula

Gamification can be used in many different contexts. Businesses often apply gamification to employee training, recruitment, evaluation, and organizational productivity. Other uses include physical activity, voter engagement, and customer loyalty programs. 

The point of gamification is to inspire users to engage with the content. Especially with tasks that are not enjoyable, such as an in-depth safety training program and compliance training, gamification can be a great tool to motivate and engage the user.

Some examples of game mechanics used in gamification are:
1. Goals
Complete the task and get a reward, such as a badge or points.
2. Status
Users increase their level or rank through completing activities. Leader boards show who is ‘winning’ and inspire users to work harder to compete.
3. Community
Users are paired or put in groups to solve problems, complete activities, or otherwise achieve an objective.
4. Education
Tips, tricks and quizzes are given to the user throughout the process.
5. Rewards

As mentioned above, points and badges are common, and useful, rewards. Other rewards could be discounts, coupons, or gift cards. This fuels the user’s motivation and keeps engagement high.

Successful gamification will tap into the user’s intrinsic motivation, such as becoming more skilled at their job, while offering an extrinsic motivation, such as rewards, points and badges.

Gamification works by providing audiences with proactive directives and feedback through game mechanics and game dynamics added to online platforms that lead to the accomplishments of business goals and objectives.

A compelling gamification experience taps into a participant’s emotions and demonstrates, easily, the best activities an audience can complete that make an impact on mutually shared goals. As employees or customers interact with a gamification program, they receive immediate feedback on performance and guided next steps towards new achievements. 

Game mechanics are the rules and rewards that appear in a program on a digital platform. Examples may include points, levels, missions, leaderboards, badges and progress. Game mechanics are how participants engage with a gamification program and receive next steps and feedback on accomplishments. Game dynamics refer to a set of emotions, behaviors and desires found in game mechanics that resonate with people. Examples may include competition through leaderboards, collaboration by completing team missions, community by seeing other participants on a news feed, collection when earning unique badges and surprises by unlocking new missions. Game dynamics are used with game mechanics to foster engagement and motivate participants.

Gamification – at its core – is about driving engagement to influence business results. When people participate and engage with your gamification initiative, they learn the best way to interact with your business, your products, your services and your brand.

The business value of gamification doesn’t end with the participant. Engagement with game mechanics provides insightful data that can help influence marketing campaigns, platform utilization and performance goals. Every employee or customer interaction gives a better sense of where a participant is spending their time and what activities drive interest.